Last Hope
by JinxPrincess13
Summary: In an alternate reality, Stephanie Edgley is the resistance's last hope for the survival of mortals and the sane magical community. The only problem is she knows the background to the basics and nothing more, and her group are miles away from their destination, losing members far too fast and being hunted down like the dogs that they are.
1. Chapter 1

"It's Vile! Get Back!"

Stephanie ran back, almost colliding with Melancholia, who cursed and spat at her.

"Watch it!" she snapped back, dodging round to get to the shelter. Melancholia went out to the front line to join the others. Almost as soon as she was out of sight, she heard her scream and an unholy crunching sound. She shuddered and turned to go out, when somebody called her name. It wasn't harsh or commanding, it was a weak cry from one of the sickly or injured. Stephanie turned back to look and forced a smile to what remained of Erskine Ravel. "You're not going out, are you?"

"Not out there." She shook her head stiffly. "I promise." She had not gotten very far in her training when the war had swept her up in its clutches. However, what she had found out was that she was the one to save the world. "The last time you went out there under fire you nearly got killed." Ravel reminded her hoarsely. Yes, she thought, and you took the blast in my place. He was an asset until that point, and he had very slim chances of survival unless they could get him there in time. She stood closer to him as an explosion rocked their shelter. "I know. I remember. I'm sorry."

He forced a smile. "Doesn't matter." Then he fell unconscious. There was another explosion.

"Stephanie!" Somebody screamed from the entrance. She whipped round and all she could see was dust. The dust had filled the shelter in the time it had taken her to turn and suddenly she was choking and someone's arm was around her waist, dragging her away. Once her lungs were clear enough, she croaked a question about the others.

"Don't worry. They'll be fine. We have symbols drawn and teleporters active." They began to fall and her stomach lurched, wishing there was at least one person on their side who had the ability to remain airborne.

"That won't hold them." She reminded him as the cold began to seep through her clothes. It was snowing, which was different.

"I know. I thought you could hear the panic."

"Your voice is one of the best at showing it. You should get out of the front line; you're not very good at anything other than big jumps."

"And punching." He added. "I'm very good at punching."

"Because that's so helpful against Vile."

"Much more so against his army than you might think." She shrugged as he took another long leap. She wasn't sure where they were going, but he wouldn't answer if she asked whether he knew of not. This banter in such stressful and frightening situations was strange, but she was certain he talked these times to keep the panic at bay and she spoke back out of something similar to instinct.

Finally they were on solid ground again and he was tucking her into the bed of one of the rooms. They had been pushed back to the emergency safety hole. Prave wasn't there to let them in, so already they were uneasy. Fletcher laid Melancholia on the sofa. She was alright, so it seemed, just missing one of her arms. That was extremely lucky under the circumstances. "She'll be okay, right?" Fletcher asked in little more than a whisper. Finbar gave a slight nod.

"She should be fine, Fletch."

"Grouse could have saved that arm." Scapegrace hissed from where he stood, leaning against Stephanie's door.

"Well he isn't here, is he?" Fletcher hissed back, foot hitting the bottom step.

"No fighting, please!" Finbar whined.

"Where's Erskine? And China?" It seemed Scapegrace had only just realised they were not there, and neither was Cameron. Fletcher shrugged.

"I wasn't in charge of bringing them. I was too far away."

"Erskine's sleeping." Cameron stated, stepping out of the nearest room. "I didn't see China…" The silence that followed was heavy and solemn. It seemed they had lost another fighter that day.

"How far to the lab?"

"We genuinely going to trust this…thing?"

"We've got no choice. We have far to go yet anyway." Fletcher snapped, before sitting on the arm of the sofa. Cameron teleported down to stand just in front of a nearby armchair and half-collapsed into it. Finbar swore and muttered something about going to bed. Scapegrace just stood there, stifling a yawn. Stephanie's words resounded in his head and he thought about it. Even if he wasn't that good at all of it, he knew how most magic worked, and so did she. They both needed training to be of use, especially if she was going to fulfil the prophecy and save the world.

_Dragonclaw stood over the other man, holding the victim's girlfriend upright by her hair, one arm looped around her neck. She wasn't dead…yet…but Dragonclaw stated clearly that if the man did not give the information now, another loved one would be torn apart before his eyes. Shadows pinned the younger man to the floor as he struggled and cursed and called the girlfriend's name. Dragonclaw grinned, slowly moving dagger and shadows up, slowly digging through her finger joints one by one. She let out a weak cry, already beaten down to a quiet, limp little ragdoll. She was too weak now to let out a proper scream, and he had done that. Dragonclaw and co._

"Breakfast, anybody?" Cameron asked, gesturing airily to several bowls of particularly watery porridge-like stuff as the tired group gathered together. There were a few mutters about not being hungry, but everyone took a bowl anyway and Cameron disappeared upstairs to make sure the injured ate. They were more important to the group than it seemed, and every fighter was precious now they had lost Grouse. The air was sombre and the group was unsure how to proceed from here. The next safe house was too far away without camping out thanks to the destruction of the one they were just at, which was a big no unless they wanted to die, and there was a chance the next safe house had been destroyed anyway.

Scapegrace was one of the majority who had not slept last night. He didn't eat, just played with the slop before him between kneading his eyes with the heels of his palms and the deep yawns. As the others began to talk about plans, he asked Stephanie for a word in private. She followed him out to the hall, dragging her feet to hear what the others were saying until he snapped at her to hurry up. "What's this about, Vaurien?"

"You're right. I'm not very good with magic, am I?" She shook her head with a grin. He snorted contemptuously. "You're not supposed to agree, Steph. Anyway, neither are you, and if Lynch and Finbar really are convinced you're our saviour, then surely you need more training…we probably won't get far, but…if we trained each other, we both know how magic works, after all…elemental magic at least…"

_The man lay in the dust, home broken to so much rubbish around him. He couldn't teleport, he seemed to be blinded, and it took him a while to realise they had given him a blindfold. He had proved to be of no use, having no idea where the girl who would save the world stayed. For a moment he remembered, but then the sword was in his skull and Tanith was returning to her room, whistling a happy tune._


	2. Chapter 2

"How do we start?"

Stephanie and Vaurien were in a field a short walk away from the safe house. It seemed like the perfect testing ground, near a pond, dry, calm air and dry topsoil. Scapegrace knew a bit about controlling the air, but he couldn't do much else. He would probably be willing to admit that currently Stephanie was better than him. She could conjure a flame in her hand and he could not get so much as a spark going, he was sure of it. As for water and earth, neither of them could do that.

**_Ravel had been arguing a while with this woman. She was a child of the spider and he felt he loved her. She walked off in a huff and he sat against the rock. Someone had been listening in, and now he scrabbled over the rock in a way that Erskine found truly pathetic. The man asked about the argument and about the man they had mentioned, and he was introduced to a new cause._**

"I was first introduced to elemental magic because of a funny turn a guy called Ghastly once had." Scapegrace confessed, holding out his hand. "The same guy who told you how to feel the fault lines in the air."

"But before I managed it, he was gone…" She sighed and held her hand out, the same as Scapegrace. "How did…what do you mean, 'funny turn'?"

Scapegrace hesitated. "Let's just say he's not the same guy you remember." She could see he didn't want to go into it, so she didn't push for details. Instead she snapped her palm against the air, trying to strike him. A light breeze played with his hair, but he didn't seem too bothered by whatever she had done. "Okay, that's certainly a start." He remarked softly.

Cameron Light thundered down the stairs. "We have to go." He stated, relatively calmly.

"Now?" Melancholia sat up straighter, worry beginning to form on her features. Light nodded. "Why?"

"We might know a string of empty buildings. We need to get to them before we're found, which I doubt will take too long, not with Pharos on their side. And not if it's true that they've captured China."

Fletcher let out a low whistle. "We're screwed."

"Not if we can make it across to these houses. Hopefully they're stocked, but just in case, we'd better bring some supplies."

"That was the benefit of the safe houses. Nye's informant had them prepared…" Melancholia wrapped her one arm around her legs, drawing them up to her chest. She had insisted on coming downstairs. They had patched her up as best as they could with the emergency supplies there. Light nodded.

"We already know it's not safe here."

"No," she corrected "we think it's not safe here because of Prave. He could have gone out for fire wood and fallen in a ditch for all we know."

"Or we could be sitting in a trap. We have to go as soon as possible." He went out to call the others in. There was a bang from upstairs as Ravel tried to get out of bed. It would always be a bad idea. Half of one of his legs was gone, half the time he could hardly breathe and the other half his muscles just refused to do as he wanted. Sometimes the others wondered why he still wanted to live with it or why they kept him with them. Unfortunately he was the only one with the link to the other rebels. He had some way of communicating with Nye's informants, but exactly how was a mystery.

**_The ground finally settled and they were on opposite sides of the fissure. Normally, that would not have been a problem, but that was when the other man snapped out of his stupor and started babbling about a girl. The only girl the first one cared about for the moment was on the opposite side of the crack and he wanted to get to her. The second man dragged him away, insisting she would be fine and that this other girl was the priority…_**

"The air smells of yak piss."

"How the heck do you know what yak piss smells like, Fletch?"

"I get around."

Melancholia shrugged and turned to talk to Stephanie. Cameron sniffed the air, gagged and tried to work out where the smell was coming from. Everyone was carrying something. "It's the factories." Cameron finally stated. "That's the smell. We can't be more than six miles away."

"That smell carries six miles? It reeks! How bad is it up close?"

"I brought nose plugs."

"I can't smell anything." Erskine stated unhelpfully.

"You hardly have any nose to smell with." Cameron reminded him. While she walked and talked, Stephanie kept snapping at the air, wishing for some kind of result.

It was Fletcher who held up the hand as a signal for the others to stop. "What's the hold up?" Melancholia snapped. There was no reply, so Finbar joined him and seemed to freeze. Finally, he turned back to them and bowed his head. "We found Prave…"


	3. Chapter 3

They wouldn't let the children see, but it must have been bad. Stephanie could see the blood and it was bad enough to make Scapegrace vomit. They were discussing whether to leave their 'friend' or to bury him or move his body or something. They had to decide quickly or it would grow dark and they would be in trouble. It was pretty cold and they weren't that far away from the housing district ahead. Stephanie sighed and stepped forward. She had to admit that it certainly wasn't pretty, what had happened to Prave. First he had been beaten, by the looks of it, and then something had torn his stomach open, torn bits off and strung them in the surrounding trees. She hadn't really noticed that before, but she didn't pay any more attention to the body. "We have to get to shelter as soon as possible! We don't have time for this." She watched Finbar, who didn't appear to be listening. He seemed to be having a flashback. The body reminded her of something too.

**_It was when the ever so familiar mage with scars across his face broke her bedroom door down that Stephanie felt safe enough to come out from underneath her bed. "Ghastly!" She called in a mix of fear for what was happening downstairs and relief for her friend coming to help her. She ran over to him and fell to the floor as he kicked her in the stomach, the air knocked from her lungs._**

It was dark now. As much of Prave as could be recovered had been buried in a shallow hole over which was written a simple message of how his memory would live on. They didn't reach the houses before nightfall, but it was too dark and respective flames of those who could conjure them would not be enough and it would be far too dangerous and noticeable to continue before dawn.

As the others settled down to talk about their options, Scapegrace led her a little away for more private tutoring. He tried to re-explain the whole thing about finding fault lines in the air, but it came out as gibberish. He instead tried to explain it as it felt to him. "If you sort of put your hand out like this you can sort of feel the air moving…it even works when there isn't a breeze, like when you're in your bedroom or something…" She frowned at him and put her hand out.

"Another thing I've noticed about you is you just can't explain things. This is the fifth time now and I still don't get it. It made much more sense with Ghastly and Skulduggery."

"If only they could mentor you." Came the sarcastic reply, followed by "Can you feel the air?"

"I can feel the wind. What am I supposed to be able to feel?"

"It kind of wraps around the palm of your hand…or sort of pushes against it…"

"Okay…I think I know what you mean."

"I think you're lying. Now, try and imagine the air you can feel has seams…"

"That's what Ghastly always said."

"Okay then, that makes this more familiar…Now imagine the air hugging your palm is separated from that curling around your fingers by seams. Try forcing those seams apart." With an exasperated sigh, she shut her eyes and obeyed, trying to imagine the seams were at the bottoms of her fingers. Nothing happened and she sighed again. "Try again. Try and feel for somewhere the air feels odd, like there's an indent or something. That's where it connects."

Sighing once more, she relaxed and snapped her palm against the air.

The first house they reached seemed to be barricaded. Cameron was trying to force it open with his shoulder. In the end he gave up and went to the next door, but that too was blocked from inside. "Oh dear…" He half-moaned, looking down the quiet street and wondering if Vile and his goons had been here before. One door finally shifted open slightly. With a few others, he shifted it all the way open and found himself in a living room-like space. The carpet looked worn and in some places burnt. The remains of furniture were thrown around and there was shattered…something everywhere. Finbar let out a low whistle and Scapegrace shuddered. "Maybe we should go…I mean, they've been here…"

"So they probably won't come back, right?" Melancholia asked.

Light shrugged. "Hard to say." There was a creak of floorboards upstairs. Cameron held up a hand to silence them and went upstairs. He was up there for a few minutes, opening and closing doors, before coming back down and claiming no-one was there.

**_She looked up to him in shock. Ghastly was her friend. There was a sickening noise from downstairs. Sounds of a struggle. She hoped it had nothing to do with her parents. Ghastly grabbed her by her collar and forced her to her feet. Quite frankly, Stephanie had never been more confused in her life. He forced her out the room, to the top of the stairs and froze. A man stood at the bottom over the seemingly unconscious form of Tanith Low. The man looked up and seemed to be considering his options. Ghastly pushed the air and the man attempted to dodge round. It caught his shoulder and he spun to the ground, half-tripping over Tanith and smacking his head hard against the bottom step. The scarred Mage moved down to meet him, dragging Stephanie along. She clicked her fingers as inconspicuously as she could, conjuring a flame. She pressed the flame to Ghastly's side. He cried out and let her go and she pitched forward, tumbling down the stairs. She tucked her head and limbs in and fell a lot less than she expected before strong arms held her and hoisted her into the air. A new voice, a stranger, advised her to remain calm. Her feet touched the floor again and opened her eyes, looking up at the man who had fallen against the stairs. He shoved her. "Go the back door." He whispered. "A friend is waiting." He then turned to fight off Ghastly. Stephanie ran to the back door, hoping this man was the good guy. There was a man with a shaved head and a dark-haired man shivering with fear. They both stood halfway down the garden, arguing in hushed voices. It sounded like the man with the shaved head was trying to get the shivering man to go in and help the burly handsome man who was now fighting Ghastly. The shivering man pointed to her and the other man beckoned her over. Something explosion-like rocked the house behind her and she ran. The two men took her arms and helped heave her to the end of the garden. "What's going on?" She asked, not sure whether she could trust these two men, "Ghastly's my friend!"_**

**_"Not anymore." The man with the shaved head yelled back. "He's a remnant now. Think about it, when was the last time you saw him?"_**

**_"Last week…"_**

**_"He was possessed four days ago. What do you know about remnants?"_**

**_"Nothing."_**

**_"They're evil and I'm afraid it's fused to him permanently…is our friend Erskine doing alright at fighting him? I mean, it's a stupid idea to pit someone against…Vaurien, we didn't just kill Erskine, did we?"_**

**_"I hope not." The man named Vaurien panted back._**

**_There was another explosion. A man landed behind them. Vaurien stopped and turned. "…Erskine?"_**

**_The man groaned and tried to pull himself to his feet. "M'okay…"_**

**_The two men helped Erskine to his feet. "Finbar, Vaurien, Bespoke and Low are still alive. I think I just pissed them off…and I think I broke something really badly…call Cameron."_**

**_Finbar dialled the number and handed the phone to Vaurien before kneeling beside the third man. "What of the girl's parents."_**

**_"I think they got out of there in time. I'm not sure if Peregrine got them, but I got Low away from them. I think they're alive."_**


End file.
